Warcraft III is becoming less and less team-based with every passing week. This is, to my mind, no bad thing – it's more interesting, more exciting and more popular than any other format.

But what is bringing about this change and where is the evidence?

Leagues

For starters there's WC3L. The season finished weeks ago, and in times past we would've been waiting with baited breath for the play-offs, the 'play downs' and the finals. Instead, we've been too busy watching WCG and various Asian tournaments. Only now that they're finished has information popped up about the knockout stages of WC3L and only recently have there been threads on the forums about it.

The same goes for NGL, but more so. Their season finished all the way back in September – nearly three months ago – but the faintest inklings of 'where has NGL gone?' only sprung up on forums this past week.

The interesting thing about NGL is that it was the league that really started this trend in Europe. With its removal of the 2v2 games and its emphasis on the players, rather than the line-up, NGL took team leagues in a different direction. In WC3L it is possible for one person to tip the game in his team's favour by winning his solo game and the 2v2. But in NGL it was possible for a player to win the whole match by himself, as we have seen many times.

Nostalgia

Going even further back, before my time in WC3, there were the Korean team leagues. I've watched a lot of the VODs from these tournaments and they were incredibly well presented. Fans look back on them with a wistful smile, remembering legendary players like Dayfly, MadFrog and Evenstar. But even these prestigious events belong to the past.

Looking at WC3L again, there was a time when each match featured two 2v2 games. That's a long gone feature, and the league is much better without it, in my opinion.

The catalyst for this change, however, is not the leagues. NGL helped to push in the direction of solo play, but the driving force is the spiraling costs of holding together a multi-continental team and the increasing demands of players.

Expense

Every successful WC3 team in Europe is connected to a multi-gaming organisation: SK, MYM, Mouz, Fnatic etc. Success breeds success, but a WC3 team is much more expensive. When a CS team attends a LAN, for example, it generally costs the management the price of five tickets on the same plane. For WC3 it's a little different. Teams have to be flown around the world from various regions; Korea, China, Netherlands, Germany and so on.

This has changed the outlook of teams in different ways. Mousesports went for an almost completely Chinese roster. The Chinese have an arguably stronger WC3 scene than any other country but their wage expectations are apparently much lower – a perfect situation for someone trying to build a team. WE followed this path, but for slightly less cynical reasons, since they are a Chinese organisation in the first place.

But other teams, like Serious Gaming, decided to stick with the international flavour but downsize. With just RotterdaM and DowaQ in the team, their chances of success are limited, but at the same time their expenses are a lot lower and they have one of the most likable players in the game, which is a great PR tool.

With all that being said, there is still a place for team leagues and I for one hope that NGL gets back on track as soon as possible. WC3L has always been one of my favourite esports competitions and it still has a very wide appeal. It will never be as popular as it once was, nor can it compete with the 1v1 LAN tournaments, but it has its place and people will still tune in to WTV every match day, even if it is just to see Grubby instead of MYM, or ToD instead of Gravitas.

The world's first and only weekly esports column returns next Tuesday.